Tales of a Transfer

So I stayed at Tia Sao's house that first week, and on Sunday night I moved accross the city to the other side, close to the port. This is how it happened: by this point I had been in Luanda for 5 days and hadn't gotten my clothes... I had bought a pair of panties in South Africa during my 24 layover, because they had checked in my carry on bag in Dallas. Apparently the laptop and the violin counted as a carry-on each :S so I found myself washing the same two pairs over and over and alternating between those two pairs all those days, lol. (Sorry if this is TMI for you sensible ones, lol). But anyhow. Finally my bags got to the airport, I showered and changed, and I happily went to visit the Tadeus Sunday evening. I took along my clothes for the next day, because it was gonna be my first day of work, and I figured I might as well spend the night there and go straight to work.
The next morning, when Tio Tadeu (Oh snaps, another shoutout!) took me to work, I realized just how close they live to the base where I work... So I asked them if I could stay for a month while I was in training before I get sent offshore. And they said sure, why not. And so I went back to Tia Sao's that same night, and lugged all my luggage (pun intended) back to the Tadeus'. And so I lived there happily ever after...
So the thing is, I work on what's called the SONILS base, which is basically a bunch of petroleum companies right next to each other in a limited access compound. and it sits right on the port... so I can watch the big ships coming and going right from my window... it's cool. Anyhow, I forgot where I was going in this paragraph... hmm. Ay quien sabe... anyways so I went to work, started working on Sept. 15. I immediately fell in love with my job. It was challenging, interesting, and it was an ongoing fountain of knowledge. I was given a textbook to study. I had to take online courses, and I got to do hands-on experiments with all the nifty tools we use to examine the well properties.
I got into a nice little routine for the next couple of weeks. I would catch a ride to work with Tio Tadeu, and then I'd catch a ride back from a guy who happens to work at my company who is also an SDA and he recognized me from my first Sabbath at church. I was learning a lot, and it was gonna be time to go offshore soon. I was SOOO looking forward to that. I was gonna have to do some helicopter evacuation training that involved being submerged in water inside the helicopter and getting out safely, because that's how we would get transported to the offshore platform. On the weekends, I would go meet a new family member and hang out with them and hear stories of days gone by.
So one beautiful day, my boss' boss calls me to his office and tells me that I'd have to get ready to go offshore the next week, so I needed to get the saftety training out of the way. And then he asked me about working 7 days a week for 4 weeks. And I told him (as I thought we had already established) that I wouldn't work on Sabbaths. Well he insisted that it was a must and that it was part of the training program, and that I signed a contract, and blah blah blah. Well, to make the long story short, I refused, and (although he had initially threatened to let me go) he said he'd see what he could do and would get back to me. Well the next couple of weeks went by, and nary a word from him. I ran out of stuff to do around the workshop, because the next part of my training was supposed to happen offshore. Finally, I get called back to the boss' boss' office. And he tells me after looking for other positions for which I would qualify within the company, he had been able to find me one within the contract writing department and gotten me an interview. So I had the interview that afternoon, and it went well... although this boss seemed stern and no-nonsense, but it was cool. So that was a Thursday. He told me he would let me know the next week. So I asked my then boss to let me have Friday off so I could deal with some stuff, since I was about to transfer departments and had nothing else to do in the first one... So I took Friday off and went to try to get my national ID, which was a long drawn out process. At about 1 p.m. one of my uncles decided to fly me to Huambo, my mom's hometown, so I could meet some more family. So I spent a wonderful weekend touring the city (which is beautiful, it's my favorite place I've visited thus far) and going to see the old college where my parents studied, which is now nothing but ruins leftover from the war :( Man I heard so many stories of their college days. So cool. I took a bunch of pictures, but at the moment they're still in my uncles camera. I know, no me apedreen! I'm trying to get them. Anyway... so I'm getting tired of typing. But in a nutshell, I missed the plane for Sunday evening so I didn't catch the plane until Monday morning (oh I forgot to mention Huambo is in a whole other state, lol) and then I got caught in traffic on the way to work... so I was super late to my first day of work in the new department, and I hadn't been able to contact my new boss so he was pretty mad. Oops.
So the tales of my new job shall continue another time :)
Good night. Boa noite. Buenas noches. (well, for ya'll it's good afternoon :D)